Lloyd Jackson Byers

Lloyd Jackson Byers, 82, of Jonesboro and Calico Rock, AR, passed away in Jonesboro February 12, 2008 after a prolonged illness with emphysema and heart failure. Private burial in Spring Creek Cemetery near Calico Rock will be held at a later date.

Lloyd Byers was born April 1, 1925, at the community of Gorby, in Izard County, AR. He was the son of Robert Elsworth Byers of Oklahoma and Anna Keren Conrad of Izard County. He was a great grandson of James A.Claiborne, farmer and surveyor who settled in Izard County about 1850 and served as county surveyor. He was a direct descendant of Col. William Claiborne, who was surveyor of Jamestown, Virginia from 1621 and later secretary and treasurer of the Virginia Company. Col. Claiborne’s descendant’s included William C.C. Claiborne, Congressman and first Governor of Louisiana.

Lloyd attended high school in Judson, Texas until enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1942. He served as seaman on the hospital ship U.S.S. Bountiful during five battle engagements in the south Pacific, and later as gunner on a destroyer. Lloyd built a home near Calico Rock after retiring from Gulf Oil Company (now Chevron) in 1983. With Gulf Oil, he had worked in production and safety engineering offshore from Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico and then, for 17 years, offshore in West Africa.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Mary Katherine “Kitty” Dumas Byers of Greggton, Texas and Jonesboro; daughter Linda Lucy of Mountain Home; grandson Christian and great grandson Lloyd Jackson Byers II of Auburn, Georgia; granddaughter Katherine Bennett and great grandchildren Ryce Caden and River Jackson Bennett of Holly Grove, Arkansas; son Larry W. Byers and grandchildren Sarah and Jared Byers of Buford, Georgia; sisters Lois Charlton of Freeport, Texas and Evelyn Johnson of Longview, Texas; and brother Bradley C. Byers of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was preceded in death by his brother, Robert Conrad Byers of Elizabeth, Arkansas.

For lasting memorials, the family asks that consideration be given to the United Methodist Church of Calico Rock, Box 369, Calico Rock, AR 72519.